Indian Antiquary Vol 60

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 229

NOVBER, 1931)
NOTES ON INDIAN MAUNDS
201
NOTES ON INDIAN MAUNDS. By W. H. MORELAND, O.S.I., C.I.E. (Continued from page 183.)
IV. Delhi Maunds. I now pass to the more difficult question of the units current in the North before the era of standardisation. I have found no suggestion in the chronicles that any of the early Muslim rulers of Delhi prescribed units of weight, and those which we meet may reasonably be taken as unofficial or customary. From the nature of the case equations are very rare, in the literature, but it so happens that we possess a few definite statements for the neighbourhood of Delhi in the second quarter of the fourteenth century. In these statements the equivalents are given in terms of Arabio units, the evaluation of which is a task for specialists ; I use the following values, which are based on the relevant articles in the Encyclopaedia of Islam and on some supplementary data, for which I am indebted to Professor H. A. R. Gibb.
The misgil, or mithadl as Arabista write it, was very close to 70 gr. when used as a weight by apothecaries; the coin-weight was somewhat smaller. The classical dirham weight (as distinct from the coin) was 487 gr. The rith was round about 1 lb. It contained 12 dqiya for ounces), and in classical literature the dgfya contained either 6 or 7 misgdis, making the nith either 5,040 or 5,880 gr. In some regions, however, the aqiya, and consequently the ritl, was substantially larger; the ritl of Egypt works out to 7,776 gr.; that of Barbary was approximately of a kilogram, or as much as 10,288 gr.
The Masdliq-ul Abedr, which was written in the reign of Muhammad Tughluq, and the information in which relates to the neighbourhood of Delhi, says (Elliot's History, iii, 582); “The rid of India, which is onlled aer, weighs 70 miaqdio, which, estimated in dirhams of Egypt, is worth 1024. Forty sers make one man." The maund was thus 2,800 misgile, or (at 70 gr. to the misqar), exactly 28 lb.; and the dirham of Egypt works out to 477 gr., which is very olose to the classical equivalent given above.
Ibn Batůta, 13 who spent some years in India during the same reign, says (iii, 382) that the Delhi rith contained 25 Egyptian, and 20 Barbary, ritlo; presumably be used round figures rather than precise equivalents. The two equations give maunds of 27 lb. 6,400 gr. (which is within a few ounces of that deduced from the Masdlig), and a little over 29 lb. Uncertainty as to the precise equivalents of the Arabic units makes it impossible to fix the Delhi maund to the proper decimal on these data, but it is safe to take it as 28-29 lb.; and this figure fita some, but not all, of the passages where quantities are given for this period and locality
Thus the Masdlig (Elliot's History, iii, 577) says that Muhammed Tughluq's royal slaves, who, we may be confident, were pampered, received a monthly allowance of two maunds of wheat and rice, and a daily ration of 3 sers of meat. Taking the maund at 281 lb., and the Average month in the Islamic calendar at 29 days, we get a daily grain-ration of just under 2 lb., which by itself would be inadequate, for the enquiries made in the nineteenth century in connection with famine-polioy showed 2 lb. of grain to be less than a satisfactory ration for an adult male. The meat-ration, equivalent to 2.1 lb., looks very high ; but it may be reduced by almost one-half on the reasonable assumption that the butchering was done in the slave-department, since, judging from data kindly furnished by Mr. J. Hammond of the Cambridge University School of Agrioulture, something like 40 per cent of the capoase would not be available as meat.
13 I quote from the French version : C. Dofrémery and G. Sanguinetti, Voyages d'Ion Batoutah; Paris, 1874-79. These pronage are discussed (iv, 81n) in H. Cordier's edition of Yulo's Cathay and the Way Thisher, Hakluyt Society, 1916.